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Summary List of stories Phase II Night: Ashes, Metal, And Corruption << chapter 63 Chapter 64 of 75 Illusions Of Disaster chapter 65 >> << previous scene Scene 1 of 2 next scene >> Location Participants Time Summary Prologue | Phase I | Phase II | Epilogue 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 Text Scrivener and Luna, much as both of them wanted to deny it, had come to enjoy their time at Canterlot: almost every weekend they returned to Ponyville, as they did when classes were on break... but Antares had made quite a few friends around the castle and the surrounding area. Antares also adored sitting in on his father's classes, and since the colt was quiet and adorable, no one had really complained about it. Well, somepony had – Scrivener was willing to bet that it was Bitchy Britches – but not even the sternest of administrators was immune to Antares' charm. The foal was allowed to sit in as long as he behaved himself, and it was clear to anypony who met Antares that he would. Luna, meanwhile, was working hard beside Celestia to train the division of Starlit Knights in Canterlot, and she took a deep, strangely-tender joy when Applejack, Big Mac, Rainbow Dash, and Soarin' all temporarily transferred themselves during the cold winter months from the Ponyville Division to the Canterlot Division so they could be better trained. Sometimes other former Knights would come visit for short periods as well,to take part in training exercises or just to experience Luna's tutelage all over again: her training was nasty, sometimes showy, but always effective. Luna and Celestia also had another project going, that only a few knew about: members of Canterlot's Starlit Knights who could be trusted to keep a secret and the demon Amdusias, who had found out anyway with his ability to sniff out other supernatural entities. In the catacombs and ruins inside the hollows of the mountain, they were steadily building a larger and larger hive: one that was already filled with industrious Nightmares and Phooka, the Nibelung Architect Illyria aiding in the construction and Tenochtitlan the design of some of the equipment they had asked for, despite the worries both he and Greece had. But Celestia knew that they needed their own army to battle Clockwork World: they needed their own special forces to counter the mechanical order and complexity being brought against them, and she trusted Luna's judgment and Luna's word... and even more, had come to trust many of the denizens of the night, and even respect them. And that was why she had worked alongside the Nibelung to craft special armor and gear to better outfit their supernatural forces. For now, they had only crafted five suits of special golden armor, that included heavy face-masks and thin but strong gold and steel plating. Iron and silver couldn't be used because it would be toxic to the Nightmares, and while the heavy armor plating would nullify some of their powers – turning invisible, for one, as well as becoming insubstantial – the armor did permit them to leave their realm of the night and walk in the sunlight. The hive beneath Canterlot fed off the emotional and spiritual energies that filtered down from the city above and a diet of food provided from farms: Phooka enjoyed milk and berries as well as meat, while the Nightmares were content to eat fish as well as flesh, as were the few demons that had taken up residence in Canterlot's underbelly. It was on its way to becoming a subterranean city in its own right: a city of dark creatures, in Canterlot's shadow. It did have effects on the population above, however: emotions ran hotter, crime rates rose, especially in the lower sections of Canterlot: not economically, but physically. All the same, it was less damaging than Celestia had expected, and she thought that there was likely a way to balance feeding the darker residents that lived beneath the city and keeping the streets above as peaceful as possible... it was just a matter of figuring it out. Canterlot wasn't the only place with strange projects running, either: in Ponyville, Cowlick had been working excitedly away on a variety of projects with Ross, running her staff ragged as she pulled apart and examined the remains of the Clockwork Ponies and 59133, trying to reverse engineer what she could and otherwise studying the technology compulsively, amazed by the level of it and the way that magic had been weaved in to power and protect the synthetics. One thing she was working on in particular were how to create and interrupt electrical discharges: after witnessing what had happened when she'd hot-wired the speaker's electrical grid and Luna had then blasted it to create an electromagnetic pulse – something she'd read about, never before tried, and was just now understanding how damned useful something like that could be when they were faced with opponents who seemed to favor advanced technology even more than she did – she was determined to replicate the effect without the use of magic. Not that it had ever been done outside of a lab setting, particularly not in this world, but she was damned determined to figure it out one way or another. She had also partly dismantled 59133's golem body, realizing that it was more of an exoskeleton around the 'core' that had been formed by the dragon's corpse than an actual golem. Like a suit of armor... and she planned to take advantage of this once she figured out how it all worked and whether or not she could bring her crazy ideas to life. Of course, at the moment, Cowlick was also powering herself mainly through coffee and the occasional amphetamine, and it took Celestia herself visiting and telling Cowlick soothingly to slow down to finally get the engineer to relax a little. During this visit, Celestia had also retrieved the one remaining tube of corruption to examine herself at Canterlot, with the help of both Odin and Kvasir. Odin himself was tired and weakening: not even Luna had hostility for him when she saw the state he was in, and Kvasir had become very quiet, lost much of his edge and treated the old once-god with gentility, like he was not just fading friend, but fading father. Not that Odin would likely die any time soon: he was still holding on, still had good days where he only carried his walking stick... but the bad days were more common, and more pronounced. Yet still, he was determined to do everything he could to help... he was determined to stop Clockwork World, even if it was the last thing he did before he passed on to wherever it was that gods went when they died. Yet things were peaceful through the winter, and it allowed them to get a lot of things done, to help friends and family both, to clear up old grudges. And as the term began to wind down, Scrivener found himself sitting in his Writer's Craft class, looking over these ponies he all knew by name, these students he all respected and who he felt all respected him to one degree or another, and he smiled despite himself, saying quietly: "Your final assignment is to write me a story, and I'm not going to make it easy on you. No minimum length, no maximum length... grammar and spelling and mechanics are only worth, let's say..." He looked up thoughtfully. "Eleven percent. That's a nice, frustrating, arbitrary number. Also means all of you will try to get at least one percent because a ninety looks so much better than an eighty nine, right?" He smiled over the group, and there were both laughs and a few glares at him. "The meat of your marks is going to come from whether or not you evoke an emotional response, however. I know, completely unfair, but that's exactly why I'm doing it. I want you all to try your damnedest to see if you can get me to laugh, or smile, or cry... but please don't just write me something to make me angry, I'll likely only pass you if you do that. "Let's toss in a few other arbitrary rules, though, to see what you've learned. I don't care about the... perspective you... Antares?" Scrivener turned his attention away from the class as he caught a movement in the corner of his eye, and then he frowned as Antares began to look wildly back and forth, turning towards him as a mumble ran through the class. "Kiddo, hey, what is it?" Antares started whimpering, and Scrivener hurried over to him before he reached forwards to grasp the foal, but it was like Antares didn't even feel his hooves, couldn't even see him as the foal asked clearly: "Daddy? Where did you go? D-Dad! Dad, where am I... I..." "He's hallucinating... okay Antares, I..." Scrivener leaned forwards, trying to pick his son up, and he gritted his teeth in surprise at how heavy he felt before Antares yelled and began to struggle violently, knocking Scrivener sprawling in surprise before the foal ran forwards, stumbling over his father's body and making Scrivener curse in shock and pain before Antares fell over with a shriek of fear- And a cut appeared on his cheek, ripping viciously enough to send blood spraying back into Scrivener's face as the stallion almost fell over in horror, his eyes widening as other ponies began to scramble up from their seats, but Scrivener rose a hoof as Antares shouted desperately: "Help me! Help me, Dad, they're all around me! Help me!" "Antares!" Scrivener shouted, rolling over, and then he leapt to his hooves and ran forwards as Antares bolted towards the doors. The foal ran out into the hall, yelling and shouting and panicking, and Scrivener followed, cursing as ponies stared in surprise and Antares ran into them every now and then, not seeing them but crying out as he bounced off them, looking terrified as he gazed back and forth and Scrivener yelled, feeling Luna beginning to panic in his mind: "Antares, stop, you're hallucinating! Antares, they're not real!" But no hallucination could cause the cut on Antares' cheek, and Scrivener was terrified of what that meant, of what Antares was seeing, before his eyes widened when a pony ahead tried to grab the foal and Antares went into a screaming frenzy, the charcoal stallion catching the words: 'they're getting closer' amidst the desperate babbling, enough for him to shout: "Let my son go!" "I'm just-" the pony began, and then Antares lashed his horn up as it gave a pulse: the telekinetic blast he emitted wasn't very strong, but it was powerful enough to dislodge him from the pony and let him leap forwards before Scrivener shot around him, shadowing his colt as Antares sobbed and cried out in terror and he began to focus his eyes, only hoping he would be able to see what Antares was seeing... And to Antares, the building had become a nightmare: behind him, there were terrible monsters dressed only in chains, nails and spikes and arrows sticking out of their bodies as they dragged themselves after him, slowly advancing as they whispered horrible things to him, as they moaned and pleaded and rasped. The halls were red and rust-covered, and chains and cobwebs hung from the ancient ceiling overhead: the floor was smeared with goo and blood and living shadows that humped up occasionally in front of him, clawing at him, as he felt invisible presences all around him, trying to grab him, trying to hurt him; he saw their eyes, staring eyes, flickering open in the midair to glare at him, heard the echo of voices coming from them. It was terrifying and mind-numbing... but worst of all, even worse somehow than the things crawling behind him, because they at least were slow... were the churning, violently spinning sawblades that covered the walls, walls that all around him were slowly, slowly closing in... Antares yelled again for his father, crying as he ran through the corridor, feeling like he was being herded onwards by some evil force before he hit something invisible again, felt something seizing, grabbing at him, bruising him before it was knocked off and he shook free. He ran forwards again, crying out in fear and desperation... And in reality, Scrivener was slowed as two security guards grabbed him, shouting at him to calm down and stop as a third lay prone on the floor, clutching at his stomach. He had tried to grab Antares and stop him, but Scrivener's eyes were almost glowing as auras and illusions flickered in and out of reality around him, before the earth pony snarled and suddenly let himself drop down. Immediately, one of the earth ponies leapt on top of him to try and pin him... and Scrivener bucked hard forwards as he leapt back to his hooves, sending the guard flying before he simply seized the second guard, slammed him back into a wall, and bared his sharp teeth as he snarled in his face: "Stay out of my way." The guard trembled at Scrivener's glowing eyes, going limp at the determination and the aggression and the raw animal he saw in them, and the strength he felt in the earth pony's hooves that was driven further by desperation. Scrivener breathed hard for a moment, then he threw the guard aside and turned, running quickly after his son and then wincing as Antares skidded suddenly to halt, screaming and covering his face... ...as blades of metal shot up in front of him and down from the ceiling, sending down a hail of cobwebs and dried blood as the spikes gnashed together like teeth, and a female voice laughed mockingly at him. Antares screamed, almost falling over and dragging himself backwards as another set of spikes ripped up from the ground and tore down from the roof, forcing him backwards as he looked desperately back and forth, then shrieked as he gazed over his shoulder, saw the ghosts and undead things dragging themselves faster, more eagerly, as the sawblades closed in on either side... And then he realized that amidst the roaring blades was an ajar door, and Antares yanked himself to his hooves and bolted for it, spikes ripping out of the ground behind the foal as his wings flapped before he screamed as a spike ripped out of the ground and tore through the edge of one of these, making him stumble in pain before he turned and lunged between the sawblades and into the door... A professor looked up dumbly as Antares staggered into the lecture hall... followed a moment later by Scrivener Blooms, breathing raggedly, looking desperate before he ran towards his son and swept him up in his forelegs, hugging him fiercely against his chest as Antares screamed. Ponies stared in shock, but Scrivener ignored them, ignored them all as he hugged his son close and whispered into Antares' ear: "It's not real... it feels real, and it looks real, but it's not real, I need you to believe it's not real..." Antares sobbed hard as he felt himself hefted into the air by some invisible force, feeling helpless: there was no way out of this room. There was no way out: the hall was filled with blades and dead things and monsters, and from their rows of seats, countless dead ponies stared down at him coldly, cruelly, without compassion or emotion. The floors were covered in blood and bile, and there was no ceiling above, only a thousand staring eyes of all shape and size... And then he closed his eyes, curling up, and he felt it: he felt his father's warm embrace, felt himself being cradled and rocked, felt wetness pattering down his features. He reached up, grabbing at the stallion, burying his face against the comfort of his chest... He opened his teary eyes, and looked up to see his father holding him close, rocking silently with him tight in his forelegs as Antares breathed hard in and out, trembling weakly. Scrivener's eyes were glowing faintly as he gazed down at his son, black tears streaming down his cheeks as he held him close... and Antares whimpered before he buried his face against his father's chest, clinging to him as he whispered: "It was so real..." "I know." Scrivener replied quietly, stroking soothingly through his mane, gazing silently at his son: it hurt his eyes, but the pain was welcome, and he envied the radiant aura that surrounded his child... an aura run through with streaks of red and black from the terror and the pain he had suffered... before Scrivener looked up sharply as he heard a loud scream that wasn't from his mind or generated by the illusion. The still-stunned professor looked up... and then cried out in fear and stumbled backwards, a yell going through the crowd and the gathered students as the door leading into the lecture hall was shoved open and an enormous monster dragged itself through, breathing heavily through its gaping mouths. Scrivener looked over his shoulder, eyes widening, and Antares whimpered before the charcoal stallion put his son down and turned around, shouting: "Get to safety, Antares! Go, hurry, hide!" The monster looked slowly up, lion's head snarling... before it was joined by a goat's head and a hissing, red-scaled dragon's. The three-headed monster shivered once, spreading enormous wings as clawed, mismatched but powerful limbs tore against the ground. It dragged itself to face Scrivener, breathing heavily and still looking lethargic, almost drugged as its eyes glowed... and the stallion didn't need to have his strange visions activated to be able to clearly see that this monster was under the control of someone. A Chimera... a rarer Equestrian monster, big brother to the Manticore, sharing many similarities: from the powerful wings to the deadly, long scorpion tail that slowly rose into a stinging position, as a second, reptilian tail that was covered in spikes and ended in a nasty bone club snapped back and forth behind it. Scrivener gritted his teeth: Manticore were bad enough, but nine times out of ten, a fully-grown Chimera would eat a Manticore for breakfast when it came to a fight between them. The students were already flocking up the stairs to the back of the lecture hall, and the professor was hiding in a corner. Antares had run up to the first row of seats, and was hiding behind them, staring desperately as the Chimera visibly began to shake off its lethargy, lion head snarling, dragon head twisting back and forth as it belched red flames, goat's head almost barking, revealing sharp fangs that didn't belong in any goat's jaws. The six eyes of the monster lost their glow, and it leaned forwards and roared furiously in an echoing cacophony before Scrivener leaned forwards and roared back, keeping the beast's attention focused on him: he couldn't let it turn its attention on anypony else. The monster snarled, and the aura Scrivener could see around it changed, darkened into what he recognized as fury and hunger. He cursed under his breath, knowing that his strange vision would be both helpful and hindering: it distracted him, but it also let him get an idea of what- The Chimera ran forwards, attempting to simply pounce on the smaller pony, and Scrivener dove and slid beneath the beast. It crashed into the carpeted floor, skidding on its face towards the wall even as its clawed forelegs and rear hooves tried quickly to lever itself up, tails snapping back and forth as Scrivener kept himself low and crawled hurriedly away before it snarled over its shoulder with its dragon's head. The mace-ended, barbed tail slammed fiercely down, and Scrivener howled in pain as it caught his back leg before he could throw himself clear, ripping a wound in the hind limb before he scrambled to his hooves as the Chimera hurriedly spun itself around. The charcoal pony winced, staggering to the side as it clawed at him, then ducking beneath a sharp, thankfully high sting of the scorpion's tail as he threw himself to the side and stumbled into the professor's podium. The tail stabbed fiercely down again, and Scrivener threw himself backwards, the tail ripping only into the base of the podium and the floor. It ripped backwards, sending up a burst of wooden splinters before the dragon's jaws lunged forwards, biting savagely, and Scrivener half fell around the podium before he snarled and leapt up, ramming against the heavy rectangular block of wood and knocking it over to smash down on the coiling neck of the dragon's head. It gasped in surprise as the lion's head roared in frustration, shoving at the heavy wooden podium with one claw as its rear hooves tried to drag it backwards and free, but the red dragon's horns caught against the other side of the wood. It gave Scrivener all the time he needed to leap forwards, slamming all four hooves down into the heavy wooden block, and there was a sickening crunch as several vertebrae along the dragon's neck snapped loudly. The head screamed once before falling still and lifeless, and the Chimera roared as it leapt forwards, ignoring the way its dragon's head bent and twisted as it clawed savagely at Scrivener. The charcoal stallion barely managed to stagger out of the way before the goat's head slammed forwards, butting into his side and cracking his ribs as he was sent flying. The charcoal stallion crashed on his side, skidding backwards with a curse of pain before he rolled up to his hooves as the Chimera reared back and shoved the podium forwards, dislodging its dead dragon's head before it roared fiercely at him, but Scrivener only snarled in response before the wounded monster charged, trying to leap forwards to pin him; the last thing it expected was for Scrivener to leap forwards as well, smashing his hooves against its leonine skull and kicking off it as he propelled himself over its broad back and past its scorpion's tail. The Chimera crashed to the ground and stumbled, tripping over its own dead head and rolling once to flop heavily on its back as Scrivener landed on his hooves, spinning around and breathing hard. The monster roared furiously at him, and the charcoal stallion grimaced: all he'd managed to do was piss it off. As it yanked itself back to its claws, he prepared himself, tensing his body: Chimera were plenty savage and vicious, but they were intelligent enough to problem solve, too... meaning in all likelihood, it wouldn't simply let him charge over its body again without retaliation. The monster hauled itself up, roared, and charged forwards, and Scrivener tensed himself before leaping up, clearing its skull this time to land on its back before the Chimera snarled and landed smoothly this time on all fours, trying to buck Scrivener off. The earth pony dropped down, bracing himself against its skull and wings, and the Chimera roared in frustration before its scorpion tail rose and then stabbed viciously downwards- Scrivener slipped out of the way, the stinger ripping a shallow cut just past him, making him howl in pain at the feeling of acidic toxin spilling into the wound and over his skin from contact alone... before the Chimera screamed as its own stinger plunged into its back. It hurriedly yanked it back, but Scrivener leapt up, seizing the large, rotund stinger and yanking it down to force the monster to sting itself again, hitting its spine this time. He barely had the strength to make it do so before it flicked its tail savagely backwards, and Scrivener was yanked into the air and thrown behind the Chimera, crashing to the ground and rolling several times before he cursed under his breath. It was way too strong... and he snarled as he hauled himself to his hooves as the Chimera roared at him, then charged eagerly even though its back was already reeking of burning, rotting flesh- A fireball shot out, smashing into the Chimera's face, and it was knocked staggering before Luna shot into the room, snarling in fury. As the beast staggered backwards, Luna slammed into its features, knocking it sprawling with a senseless howl as she kicked off the leonine center head before flicking her horn upwards, and a blast of lightning erupted from the air, crashing into the monster's cracked skull. The Chimera screamed and staggered backwards, electricity tearing back and forth over it in broad arcs before Luna and Scrivener both shot forwards as the wounded, distracted beast gargled and spasmed... and then they both smashed straight into it, ramming directly into its head with a loud crunch and both wincing at the electricity that sparked from its body over theirs before the Chimera was knocked sprawling backwards. For a moment, it only shivered on the ground, the arcs of electricity fading as the goat's head bleated weakly... and then this too dropped flat as the lion's head exhaled a weak, broken moan. Scrivener and Luna both looked down at the broken beast, either dead or very close to it from the state of its crushed-in central head: the head in the center was the one that had the brain and controlled the rest of the body, and once it was destroyed, the Chimera tended to die out before very long. There was silence... and then Scrivener dropped his head forwards with a sigh of relief as Antares ran hurriedly down from the first row, charging over to his parents. Luna leapt forwards, picking him up in a tight embrace, her armor glinting over her body as she looked worriedly over at Scrivener. "By Mimir's head, what... what happened, Scrivy? And had I not been close by..." "I know. I know, but you were and..." Scrivener gritted his teeth, shaking his head slowly and disbelievingly as he looked down at the crushed Chimera. "Antares was... was seeing things, and then this monster attacked us... it was being controlled by something..." He closed his eyes for a moment, visions still flickering through his mind before he looked across at Luna... then frowned and shivered a bit as he saw Nightmare Moon: not in Luna, whose aura was radiant and yet dark, but standing behind her, snarling silently. Scrivener could only stare, even as students began to nervously filter down the lecture hall and the professor pushed herself to her hooves, before the dark entity leaned slowly forwards and whispered something into Luna's ear. The sapphire mare's eyes widened in shock... and then a snarl slowly spread over her face as she squeezed Antares closer, saying coldly: "It looks as if thou shall be taking the rest of the day off work, Scrivener Blooms. We have some old friends to pay a visit to." And without another word, Luna quickly put Antares on Scrivener's back before she turned and led him out, neither answering any more questions as they hurried out into the hall and ran through the panicked university corridors, the only things either of them aware of being Antares still whimpering on Scrivener's back... and Nightmare Moon swearing terrible, bitter vengeance against the Norns for daring to hurt their poor, sweet Antares Mīrus. Category:Transcript Category:Story